I'd Rather Not

Quick update - last week, a virus stole its way into my body like Ali Baba into the cave of the Forty Thieves. Evidently, my immune system will lay down for anyone wielding a simplistic passphrase. As a result, I got a solid 60 minutes of running in 7 days.

The weather makes having a fever especially miserable and especially difficult to tell whether it's gone or not. I am getting a flu shot fo' sho' this fall when the time comes around - I hate needles, but I have officially decided that I hate being sick more.

On the bright side, I got my car (officially dubbed 'Apollo') back from the shop just on Monday. I took it in on Thursday to have the rear bumper and some scratches on the driver's side quarter panel fixed - unfortunate that they got damaged in the first place, but the fixes look great. Joe at LA Auto Body did a really nice job - and he ended up doing about 4 extra hours worth of work on the back panel, too (without charging me).

I'm taking it back for him to polish it up next week (he said there were some finishing touches he wanted to do) but I may also ask to have the transmission / diff fluid changed at some point. I'm comfortable with changing my oil on this car now, but transmission fluid I'd rather have a pro do at this point. Plus, I hear diff fluid smells horrendous.

The reason I want to get it done (besides wanting to get Redline in there, rather than whatever the factory defaults are) is...because I'm planning on going autocrossing for the first time soon! The New England Region of SCCA has an event at Devens-Moore Airfield in a few weeks. Considering the part where I'm least experienced is probably still shifting - I haven't even tried heel-and-toeing yet and the downshifts are far from smooth - I'd like all the help I can get. Though, of the few videos I've watched of guys racing RX-8's, it looks like they just jam it in second gear and leave it there. You can get up to 55 or so without hitting the redline in 2nd, and I doubt you're really exceeding that ever on an autocross course.

All this talk of vehicles makes me want to go drive. It's unfortunate that it takes so long to get to Williamstown from here - going on the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) in the Berkshires is just heavenly in this car. I would almost have to peg it up there with being as exhilarating as running a perfect 800/1500. Not quite, but it's pretty amazing.